Now that the apostle has placed their souls on the ground of
truth, he enters upon the subject of the error, showing that which
had occasioned his remarks. Of this we have already spoken.

In answering this error, and in guarding them from the wily
efforts of seducers, he puts everything in its place here by
appealing to precious truths of which he had already spoken. Their
gathering together unto Christ in the air was a demonstration of
the impossibility of the day of the Lord being already
come.

Moreover with regard to this last he presents two
considerations: first, the day could not be already come, since
Christians were not yet gathered to the Lord, and they were to come
with Him; second, the wicked one who has then to be judged had not
yet appeared, so that the judgment could not be executed.

The apostle had already instructed the Thessalonians with
regard to this wicked one, when at Thessalonica; and in the former
epistle he had taught them concerning the rapture of the church. In
order that the Lord should come in judgment, iniquity must have
reached its height, and open opposition to God have been
manifested. But the truth had another and a more precious side: the
saints were to be in the same position as Christ, to be gathered
together unto Him, before He could manifest Himself in glory to
those outside. But these truths require a more connected
examination.

Their gathering together unto Christ before the manifestation
was a truth known to the Thessalonians; it is not revealed here, it
is used as an argument. The Lord Jesus was coming, but it was
impossible that He should be without His church in the glory. The
King would indeed punish His rebellious subjects; but, before doing
so, He would bring to Himself those who had been faithful to Him
amid the unfaithful, in order to bring them back with Him and
publicly to honour them in the midst of the rebels. But the apostle
here speaks only of the rapture itself, and he adjures them only by
that truth not to allow themselves to be shaken in mind as though
the day were come. What an assured truth must this have been to
Christians, since the apostle could appeal to it as to a known
point, on which the heart could rest! The relationship of the
church to Christ, its being necessarily in the same position with
Him, rendered the idea that the day was already come a mere
folly.

In the second place, the already known fact is asserted, that
the apostasy must previously take place, and then the man of sin be
revealed. Solemn truth! Everything takes its place. The forms and
the name of Christianity have long been maintained; true Christians
have been disowned; but now there should be a public renunciation
of the faith -- an apostasy. True Christians should have their true
place in heaven. But, besides this, there should be a person who
would fully realise in sin the character of man without God. He is
the man of sin. He does his own will -- it is but Adam fully
developed; and, incited by the enemy, he opposes himself to God (it
is open enmity against God) and he exalts himself above all that
bears the name of God; he assumes the place of God in His
temple. So that there is apostasy, that is, the open renunciation
of Christianity in general, and an individual who concentrates in
his own person (as to the principles of iniquity) the opposition
that is made against God.

It will be noticed that the character of the wicked one is
religious here, or rather anti-religious. The apostle does not
speak of a secular power of the world, whatever its iniquity may
be. The man of sin assumes a religious character. He exalts himself
against the true God, but he shows himself as God* in the temple of
God. Observe here that the sphere is on earth. It is not a god for
faith. He shows himself as a god for the earth. The profession of
Christianity has been abandoned. Sin then characterises an
individual, a man, who fills up the measure of the apostasy of
human nature, and, as a man, proclaims his independence of God. The
principle of sin in man is his own will. He arises, as we have
already seen, out of the rejection of Christianity. In this respect
also evil is at its height.

{*"as God" is to be left out before "sitteth," in 2 Thess. 2:
4.}

This man of sin exalts himself above God, and, sitting as God
in the temple of God, he defies the God of Israel. This last
feature gives his formal character. He is in conflict with God, as
placing himself publicly in this position -- showing himself as God
in the temple of God. It is the God of Israel who will take
vengeance on him.

Christianity, Judaism, natural religion, all are rejected. Man
takes a place there on earth, exalting himself above it all, in
opposition to God; and, in particular, arrogating to himself (for
man needs a God, needs something to worship) the place and the
honours of God, and of the God of Israel.* -- {*In 1 John 2 we find
the double character of the Antichrist as regards Christianity and
Judaism. He denies the Father and the Son, rejects Christianity;
he denies that Jesus is the Christ, which is Jewish unbelief. His
power is the working of Satan, as we find here. As man he sets up
to be God. So that his impiousness is manifested in every way. As
the question is more upon the earth, it is the God of the earth,
the Man withal from heaven, who judges him.}

These verses present the wicked one in connection with the
state of man, and with the different relationships in which man has
stood towards God. In them all he shows himself as apostate, and
then he assumes the place of God Himself the first object of human
ambition, as its attainment was the first suggestion of Satan.

In that which follows, we see not the condition itself of
apostasy with regard to the different positions in which God had
placed man, but simply man unrestrained, and the work of Satan. The
man is but the vessel of the enemy's power.

Man in whom is the fulness of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus, and
man filled with the energy of Satan, are opposed to each
other. Before, it was man forsaking God, wicked, and exalting
himself. Here, it is opposition against God on the part of man,
unrestrained, and inspired by Satan himself. Consequently we have
(not the wicked one, but) the lawless -- the unbridled-one. The
principle is the same, for "sin is lawlessness" (see remarks 1 John
3: 4). But in this first case man is viewed in his departure from
God, and in his guiltiness; in the second, as acknowledging none
but himself.

To this condition in which all restraint will be removed, a
barrier has yet existed.

The apostle had already told them of the apostasy, and of the
manifestation of the man of sin. He now says that the Thessalonians
ought to know the hindrance that existed to his progress and his
manifestation before the appointed time. He does not say that he
had told them, but they ought to know it. Knowing the character of
the wicked one, the barrier revealed itself. The main point here is
that it was a barrier. The principle of the evil was already at
work: a barrier alone prevented its development. Its character,
when developed, would be unbridled will which exalts and opposes
itself.* -- {*Note this point. All was ready and complete in the
apostle's time, only restrained. So Christ was ready to judge.
Only the patience of God waits, in the accepted time.}

Unbridled self-will being the principle of the evil, that which
bridles this will is the barrier. Now it exalts itself above all
that bears the name of God, or to which homage is paid: that which
hinders it therefore is the power of God acting in government here
below as authorised by Him. The grossest abuse of power still bears
this last character. Christ could say to Pilate, "Thou couldest
have no power against me, except it were given thee from above."
Wicked as he might be, his power is owned as coming from God. Thus,
although men had rejected and crucified the Son of God, so that
their iniquity appeared to be at its height, the hindrance still
existed in full. Afterwards God, having sent His Spirit, gathers
out the church, and, although the mystery of iniquity began
immediately to work mingling the will of men with the worship of
God in Spirit, God had always (He still has) the object of His
loving care upon the earth. The Holy Ghost was here below; the
assembly, be its condition what it might, was still on earth, and
God maintained the barrier. And as the porter had opened the door
to Jesus in spite of all obstacles, so He sustains everything,
however great the energy and progress of evil, The evil is bridled:
God is the source of authority on earth. There is one who hinders
until he be taken out of the way. Now when the assembly (the
assembly, that is, as composed of the true members of Christ) is
gone, and consequently the Holy Ghost as the Comforter is no longer
dwelling here below, then the apostasy takes place,* the time to
remove the hindrance is come, the evil is unbridled, and at length
(without saying how much time it will take) the evil assumes a
definite shape in him who is its head. The beast comes up from the
abyss. Satan -- not God -- gives him his authority; and in the
second beast all the energy of Satan is present. The man of sin is
there.

{*The principle of this may be widely at work individually, as
in 1 John 2 it had begun, but the open public manifestation was to
come. Jude gives the creeping in to produce corruption; John, the
going out which characterises the Antichrist.}

Here it is not outward and secular power that is spoken of, but
the religious side of Satan's energy.

With regard to the individual instruments who compose the
barrier, they may change every moment, and it was not the object of
the Holy Ghost to name them. He who was the one of them that
existed when this epistle was written would not be so at the
present time; to have named him then would have been of no use to
us in the present day. The object was to declare that the evil
which should be judged was already working, that there was no
remedy for it, that it was only a hindrance on God's part which
prevented its full development: a principle of the highest
importance with regard to the history of Christianity.

Whatever form it might take, the apostasy of the men who would
renounce grace would necessarily be more absolute than any
other. It is opposition to the Lord. It has the character of an
adversary. The other principle of human iniquity enters into it,
but this is the source of the "perdition." It is the rejection of
goodness; it is direct enmity.

"That which hinders" is in general only an instrument, a means,
which prevents the manifestation of the man of sin -- the wicked
one. So long as the assembly is on earth, the pretension to be God
in His temple cannot take place or at least would have no
influence. Satan has his sphere, and must needs have it, in the
mystery of iniquity; but there is no longer a mystery when the
place of God in His temple is openly taken. That which hinders is
therefore still present. But there is a person active in
maintaining this hindrance. Here I think indeed that it is God in
the Person of the Holy Ghost, who during the time called "the
things that are," restrains the evil and guards divine authority in
the world. As long as that subsists, the unrestrained exaltation of
wickedness cannot take place. Consequently I do not doubt but that
the rapture of the saints is the occasion of the hindrance being
removed and all restraint loosed, although some of the ways of God
are developed before the full manifestation of the evil.

This thought does not rest upon great principles only: the
passage itself supplies elements which show the state of things
when the power of evil develops itself. 1st, The apostasy has
already taken place. This could hardly be said if the testimony of
the assembly still subsisted, as it had in time past, or even yet
more distinctly as being freed from all false and corrupting
elements. 2nd, Authority -- as established of God, so far as
exercising a restraint on man's will in God's name -- has
disappeared from the scene, for the wicked one exalts himself
against all that is called God and to which homage is paid, and
presents himself as God in the temple of God. Compare Psalm 82,
where God stands among the gods (the judges) to judge them before
He inherits the nations. Before that solemn hour when God will
judge the judges of the earth, this wicked one, despising all
authority that comes from Him, sets himself up as God: and that on
the earth, where the judgment will be manifested. And then, 3rd, In
place of the Holy Ghost and His power manifested on the earth, we
find the power of Satan, and with precisely the same tokens that
bore witness to the Person of Christ. So that the passage itself,
whether as to man or as to the enemy, gives us (in the three points
of which we have spoken) the full confirmation of that which we
have ventured to set forth.

The assembly, the powers ordained by God upon the earth, the
Holy Ghost present here as the Comforter in lieu of Christ, have
all (as regards the manifestation of the government and the work of
God) given place to the self-willed unbridled man, and to the power
of the enemy.

In saying this we speak of the sphere of this prophecy, which
moreover embraces that of the public testimony of God on earth.

Definitely then we have man here in his own nature -- as it has
displayed itself by forsaking God -- in the full pursuit of his own
will in rebellion against God; the wilful man, developed as the
result of apostasy from the position of grace in which the assembly
stood, and in contempt of all the governmental authority of God on
the earth. And since that authority had shown itself directly and
properly in Judea, this contempt and the spirit of rebellion in
man, who exalts himself above everything, but who cannot be
heavenly (heaven, and all pretension to heaven, is given up by man,
and lost by Satan), display themselves by man taking the place of
God in His temple under the most advanced form of Jewish apostasy
and blasphemy. At the same time Satan acts -- God having loosed his
bridle -- with a power (a lying power indeed, but) which gives the
same testimony before men as that which the works of Christ did to
the Saviour; and also with all the skill that iniquity possesses to
deceive. It is in the wicked, the lawless one, that Satan works
these things. Our consideration of the development of the latter
part of this solemn scene will come (God willing) in the book of
Revelation. We may add, that there we have this wicked one as the
false Messiah, and as prophet, in the form of his kingdom -- two
horns like a lamb. He (Satan) had been cast down from heaven where
he had been anti-priest, and now takes up Christ's titles on earth
of king and prophet. In Daniel 11 he is seen as king; here, as the
unbridled man, and in particular as the result of the apostasy,*
and the manifestation of Satan's power. In a word, instead of the
assembly, the apostasy; instead of the Holy Ghost, Satan; and,
instead of the authority of God as a restraint upon evil, the
unbridled man setting himself up as God on the earth.

{*We may remark that the apostasy develops itself under the
three forms in which man has been in relationship with God; Nature
-- it is the man of sin unrestrained, who exalts himself; Judaism
-- he sits as God in the temple of God; Christianity -- it is to
this that the term apostasy is directly applied in the passage
before us.}

Another circumstance, already mentioned demands particular
attention. I have said that he presents himself as the Messiah
(that is to say, in His two characters as king and prophet, which
are His earthly characters). In heaven Satan has then nothing more
to do; he has been cast out from thence, so that there is no
imitation of the Lord's high-priesthood. In that respect Satan had,
in his own person, acted another part. He was previously in heaven
the accuser of the brethren. But, at the time of which we are
speaking, the assembly is on high, and the accuser of the brethren
is cast out never to return there. In a man inspired by him he
makes himself prophet and king. And in this character he does the
same things (in falsehood) as those by which God had sanctioned the
mission of Christ before men (compare v. 9 and Acts 2: 22). In
Greek the words are identical.* I would also recall here another
solemn fact in order to complete this picture. In the history of
Elijah we find that the proof of the divinity of Baal, or that of
Jehovah, is made to rest upon the fact of their respective servants
bringing down fire from heaven. Now in Revelation 13 we learn that
the second beast brings down fire from heaven in the sight of
men. So that we find here the marvellous works that sanctioned the
Lord's mission, and there that which proved Jehovah to be the true
and only God. And Satan performs both in order to deceive
men.

{*Only the word for "miracle" or "power" is plural in Acts 2.}

This may give us an idea of the state in which they will be;
and it indicates also that these things will take place in relation
with the Jews, under the double aspect of their connection with
Jehovah and their rejection of Christ and reception of
Antichrist.

Thus, thank God, the truth is abundantly confirmed, that these
things do not relate to the assembly, but to those who, having had
opportunity to profit by the truth, have rejected it, and loved
iniquity. Neither does it relate to the heathen, but only to those
among whom the truth has been set forth.* They refused it, and God
sends a lie, and an efficacious lie, that they may believe it. He
does this in judgment: He did the same thing with the nations
(Rom. 1: 24, 26, 28); He did it also with the Jews (Isa. 6: 9, 10);
He does it here with nominal Christians. But it does relate to the
Jews as a nation that rejected the truth -- the testimony of the
Holy Ghost (Acts 7) -- but still more to Christians (in name); in
short to all those who will have had the truth presented to
them.

{*I only allude here to the connection between the renunciation
of Christianity and the development of apostate Judaism, which are
linked together in the rejection of the true Christ, and the denial
of the Father and the Son -- features given in 1 John as
characteristic of the Antichrist. But I am persuaded that the more
we examine the word, the more we shall see (perhaps with surprise)
that this fact is confirmed. Moreover the turning back to Judaism,
and the tendency to idolatry by the introduction of other mediators
and patrons, and the losing sight of our union with the Head, and
thus of the perfection and deliverance from the law which are ours
in Christ, have, at all times, characterised the mystery of
iniquity and the principle of apostasy. The apostle had incessantly
to combat this. That of which we spoke above is but its full
manifestation.}

With nominal Christians this has necessarily the character of
apostasy, or at least it is connected with this apostasy, and is
consequent upon it; as verse 3 teaches us, the apostasy takes
place, and then the man of sin is revealed.

In connection with his character of the man of sin he presents
himself without restraint in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God.* In relation to the lying power of Satan and his
efficient work, he presents himself in the character of Christ --
he is the Antichrist, assuming consequently a Jewish character. It
is not only the pride of man exalting itself against God, but the
power of Satan in man deceiving men, and the Jews in particular, by
a false Christ; so that, if it were possible, the very elect would
be deceived. We may remark that all these characters are precisely
the opposite of Christ -- falsehood instead of truth, iniquity
instead of righteousness, perdition instead of salvation.

{*This is the culminating point in his character as an
apostate who has renounced grace. The ninth and following verses
develop his positive and deceitful activity by which he seeks to
win men. This explains the mixture (which, moreover, generally
exists) of atheism in will, and superstition.}

It is to a power like this, of lies and destruction that man --
having forsaken Christianity and exalted himself in pride against
God -- will be given up The apostasy (that is to say, the
renunciation of Christianity) will be the occasion of this evil;
Judea and the Jews, the scene in which it ripens and develops
itself in a positive way.

The Antichrist will deny the Father and the Son (that is,
Christianity); he will deny that Jesus is the Christ (this is,
Jewish unbelief). With the burden upon him of sin against
Christianity, grace, and the presence of the Holy Ghost, he will
ally himself with Jewish unbelief, in order that there may be not
only the full expression of human pride, but also for a time the
satanic influence of a false Christ, who will strengthen the throne
of Satan among the Gentiles occupied by the first beast to whom the
authority of the dragon has been given. He will also set up his own
subordinate throne over the Jews, as being the Messiah, whom their
unbelief is expecting; while at the same time he will bring in
idolatry, the unclean spirit long gone out who then returns to his
house which is devoid of God.

And now, with regard to his destruction (whom the Lord Jesus
will consume with the spirit of His mouth and destroy with the
manifestation of His presence, or of His coming), the first of
these means characterises the judgment; it is the word of truth
applied in judgment according to the power of God. In the
Revelation, it says that the sword proceeds out of His mouth. Here
He is not spoken of in the character of a man of war, as in
Revelation 19. The spirit of His mouth is that inward and divine
power which kindles and executes the judgment. It is not an
instrument, it is the divine source of power which executes its
purpose by a word (compare Isa. 30: 33). But there is another
aspect of this judgment. The Lord, the Man Jesus, will return. His
return has two parts -- the return into the air to take His
assembly to Himself, and the public manifestation in glory of His
return.

In the first verse of our chapter we have read of His return
and our gathering together unto Him. Here, verse 8, is the
manifestation of His presence publicly in creation. At the time of
this public manifestation of His coming He destroys the whole work
and power of the wicked one. It is the Man formerly obedient and
humbling Himself on the earth, exalted of God, and become Lord of
all, who destroys the lawless man that has exalted himself above
everything and made himself as God, instead of being obedient to
God.

This evil -- on the side of Satan's influence -- was already
working in the apostle's time; only it was bridled and kept back,
until that which restrained it should no longer be on the
scene. Then should the wicked one be revealed. To sum up, the
taking away of the assembly, and the apostasy, were first
necessary; and then this man should present himself as an
unbelieving Jew,* and the power of Satan would be displayed in
him.

{*I do not say that his first appearance will be the apostasy
of Judaism; I do not think it will be. He will present himself to
them as being the Christ, but according to the hopes and passions
of the Jews. But afterwards it will be an apostasy even from
Judaism, as had partially been the case in the days of the
Maccabees -- a fact which the Spirit uses in Daniel 11, as a figure
precursive of the time of Antichrist. He is from his first
appearance an unbeliever and the enemy of God, an apostate as to
the assembly, and denying that Jesus is the Christ.

We are taught positively by John, that the rejection of
Christianity and Jewish unbelief are united in the Antichrist.

It appears that apostasy with regard to Christianity and Jewish
unbelief are connected and go together; and afterwards Jewish
apostasy and open rebellion against God, which, causing the cry of
the remnant, brings in the Lord, and all is ended. Now the apostle
(2 Thess. 2: 3, 4) presents the complete picture of man's iniquity,
developed when apostasy from the grace of the gospel had taken
place (he exalts himself even to the making himself God), without
touching the Jewish side or the manifested power of Satan. These
verses show us the man of sin is the result of the apostasy which
will break out in the midst of Christendom. Verse 9 begins to teach
us in addition, that the coming of this wicked one is also in
immediate connection with a mighty display of the energy of Satan,
who deceives by means of marvellous works and a strong delusion to
which God gives men up, and of which we have spoken in the text. It
is man and Satan here, with enough to show its connection with
Judaism in the last days (even as the mystery of iniquity was
linked with Judaism in the days of the apostle), although it is not
the occasion of giving the details of the Jewish development of the
evil. We must look for these details elsewhere, where they are in
their place, as in Daniel. The Apocalypse and 1 John furnish us
with the means of connecting them: we do but allude here to this
connection.}

Now this satanic influence was for those who had rejected the
truth. Of the Thessalonians -- to whom he had given these
explanations respecting the day which they fancied was come -- the
apostle thought very differently. God had chosen these "brethren
beloved of the Lord" from the beginning for salvation, through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, to which He
had called them by Paul's gospel (and that of his companions), and
to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus. How different was
this from the visitations of the day of the Lord, and the
circumstances of which the apostle had spoken! They were numbered
among those who should be the companions in that day of the Lord
Jesus Himself.